This is why, as a result of the regime changes born
from the Arab Spring, al-Qaida is multiplying like a nest of scorpions hiding
under desert rocks.

One should not be surprised by Ansar al-Sharia’s now
infamous 9/11 Benghazi attack on US diplomats and ambassadors.

Al-Qaida
made up a formidable chunk of the ragtag rebels that warranted NATO assistance
in ousting Libya’s Gaddafi regime. Likewise, it is widely reported that the Free
Syrian Army is not alone in its campaign against the Assad regime. Here too,
al-Qaida is a player with the same immediate interest as the storied protagonist
the world has made of the Free Syrian Army.

Overnight on Sunday, October
21, the Israel Air Force targeted a terrorist cell in the southern Gaza Strip
that was preparing to launch a rocket into Israel. This happened only one day
after two Global Jihad operatives were killed when an Israeli aircraft fired a
missile at the motorcycle they were riding in Jabalya in the northern Gaza
Strip, according to Joint News Service.

Following the airstrikes in Gaza
(before Operation Pillar of Defense) that killed three terrorists, including
Hisham Saedni, one of the top al- Qaida leaders in Gaza, Israeli security forces
were already on high alert along the borders with Egypt and Gaza to thwart
potential attacks emanating from Sinai, reported the same source.

AFTER
OSAMA bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals in Pakistan in May 2011, US President
Barack Obama released a statement saying: “Those who attacked us on 9/11 wanted
to drive a wedge between the United States and the world. They failed. On this
10th anniversary, we are united with our friends and partners in remembering all
those we have lost in this struggle.... Working together, we have disrupted
al-Qaida plots, eliminated Osama bin Laden and much of his leadership and put
al-Qaida on the path to defeat.”

He welcoming the Arab Spring uprisings
in the Middle East and North Africa, saying, “Meanwhile, people across the
Middle East and North Africa are showing that the surest path to justice and
dignity is the moral force of nonviolence, not mindless terrorism and
violence... it is clear that violent extremists are being left behind and that
the future belongs to those who want to build, not destroy.”

President
Obama was and is misreading the threat the al- Qaida continues to
pose.

At the Aspen Security Forum last summer, Peter Bergen, CNN’s
national security analyst and a director at the New America Foundation, gave a
talk titled: “Time to Declare Victory: Al-Qaida Is Defeated.”

Jennifer
Rubin of The Washington Post brought this to the attention of readers of her
blog.

She wrote: “Since then, AQ and/or its affiliates have launched
lethal attacks on American diplomatic compounds in Libya and Yemen, hoisted an
al-Qaida flag above the US embassy in Cairo, resurged in Iraq, and put boots on
the ground in Syria.

They have bombed Christian churches in Nigeria and
the mosques of Sufi Muslims in Mali. They have battled African Union troops in
Somalia. Within the last week, Taliban terrorists shot Malala Yousafzai, a
14-year-old Pakistani, for the ‘crime’ of advocating education for girls, and
bombed the office of moderate tribal elders in northwest Pakistan, killing at
least 17 people.”

On October 21, Jordanian authorities foiled an al-Qaida
plot to attack “shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions using suicide
bombers, booby-trapped cars and rockets smuggled in from Syria on a date
terrorists dub ‘9/11 the second.’” according to the Associated Press. This news
report was confirmed and sure enough 11 terrorists were taken into Jordanian
custody.

And there is further evidence al-Qaida has not been
defeated.

According to CNN: “Abu Sufyan Said al-Shihri was – or is – the
second most senior figure in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP).

Last month, the Yemeni Defense Ministry announced al-Shihri had
been killed ‘in an operation’ in the Hadramawt Valley, a stronghold of AQAP in
the south of the country.”

But al-Shihri appears to have resurfaced with
a defiant audio message. In the message – called “Events and Lessons” and
released by AQAP’s media wing, Al- Malahem, on Monday – a speaker purported to
be al- Shihri declares: “What has been reported in various media outlets
regarding my death in the Arabian Peninsula is a rumor to cover the killing of
innocent unarmed Muslims in Yemen.”

Al-Shihri (if it was him) accused the
Yemeni government of being an American puppet, saying, “They pushed another lie
so they can muddy the events, and this is when they reported my killing, as if
America’s killing of the mujihadeen is a victory for Islam and Muslims, but they
are wrong.”

He also addressed Arab media, saying: “To the mercenary media
in Muslim countries, you have a duty to check the facts, have a credibility by
checking your sources, and to use your tools to support Islam and its people
rather than being a paid agent of the West.”

And the list goes on.
According to NATO intelligence, Mali is loaded with al-Qaida sleeper cells and
training camps. In fact, according to reports, France is planning to send drones
into Mali to monitor large areas of land controlled by the deadly terrorist
network.

The writer is a freelance journalist who has worked for Arutz-7
and holds an MA in literature from Bar-Ilan University.

Sites Of Interest

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